ICOM ever going to make a digital ver of the R-20 ??

[BLAH]

I have been wondering for a long time now if ICOM is ever going to make a P25 version of the / or like the IC-R20
Think about it, If they had a digital version of the R20 that was still dual band and same frequency range, but it received digital, APCO 25 phase I and phase II, X2-TDMA etc etc
And had a ton of updated features of course,
That would be the holy grail of hand held receivers!!

Just a random thought ........
and that's what I want for Christmas lol

 

[toastycookies]

Would still be pretty useless on digital with no trunking.

 

[ka3jjz]

Incorrect - there are several federal (like the TSA, USCG) and some state agencies using conventional P25. In addition there are a few - not many - P25 ham repeaters

I think Icom has a P25 ham handheld, so it should only be a short step to upgrade the R20. Whether the demand is there is quite another question, seeing as the scanner market - as limited as it is - is probably 'flooded' with P25 radios now. Mike

 

[mancow]

Everything seems stagnant. They all keep turning out iterations of the same old crap or slight variations of it. It's like the remastered albums that come out every decade just to get a shot in the arm of sales.

The elephant in the room is DMR. It's as if they don't want to acknowledge if even exists. It's really bizarre.

The only real innovation seems to be with SDR.

 

[prcguy]

Have you looked at the AOR 8200D?
prcguy

I have been wondering for a long time now if ICOM is ever going to make a P25 version of the / or like the IC-R20
Think about it, If they had a digital version of the R20 that was still dual band and same frequency range, but it received digital, APCO 25 phase I and phase II, X2-TDMA etc etc
And had a ton of updated features of course,
That would be the holy grail of hand held receivers!!

Just a random thought ........
and that's what I want for Christmas lol

 

[skidplate]

My guess is that they will not. The R20 is not a scanner in the usual sense. There are scanners that do all the digital stuff so I doubt it would be wise to try to move the R20 towards the scanner market that already has that niche filled. It's like asking when Uniden is going to add LF,HF,MW SSB/CW to it's latest models.

 

[BLAH]

My guess is that they will not. The R20 is not a scanner in the usual sense. There are scanners that do all the digital stuff so I doubt it would be wise to try to move the R20 towards the scanner market that already has that niche filled. It's like asking when Uniden is going to add LF,HF,MW SSB/CW to it's latest models.

That is true, Good point. I guess one needs to have more than one hand held receiver to get the job done these days and that's all there is to it


And hey prcguy, I had not really checked out the AOR8200D. the 8200 was always kind of a turn off for me (mainly the price and the need for expansion cards like the "Tone Eliminator Slot Card" etc and so on. At the time a few years back I figured by the time I bought all the cards I wanted I could by a R20 for the price of the cards LOL
However I do like the new 8200D (good job on AOR's part)
Thanks prcguy!

 

[prcguy]

The AOR 8200D includes CTCSS decoding and inversion scrambler decoding (for Govt versions) plus a built in audio recorder to micro SD card. I don't think there are any cards you can add to the D model.
prcguy

That is true, Good point. I guess one needs to have more than one hand held receiver to get the job done these days and that's all there is to it


And hey prcguy, I had not really checked out the AOR8200D. the 8200 was always kind of a turn off for me (mainly the price and the need for expansion cards like the "Tone Eliminator Slot Card" etc and so on. At the time a few years back I figured by the time I bought all the cards I wanted I could by a R20 for the price of the cards LOL
However I do like the new 8200D (good job on AOR's part)
Thanks prcguy!

 

[BLAH]

The AOR 8200D includes CTCSS decoding and inversion scrambler decoding (for Govt versions) plus a built in audio recorder to micro SD card. I don't think there are any cards you can add to the D model.
prcguy

Hey do you happen to know, Will the 8200D decode Digital Code Squelch (DCS)??
Or rather I don't really care about know what a given DCS is so that's cool if it does not decode DCS,
However can I listen to a CH(s) and filter out the chatter that's not using a given DCS ???

Or rather can you program in a DTCS along with the freq. (I don't see why you couldn't).. That would be VERY odd however the searched in the PDFowners manule and nothing comes up for DCS, DTCS, or DLP ??

 

[prcguy]

I think it only does CTCSS, see the manual here: http://www.aorja.com/support/manuals/AR8200D_addendum_to_AR8200mk3_manual.pdf
prcguy

Hey do you happen to know, Will the 8200D decode Digital Code Squelch (DCS)??
Or rather I don't really care about know what a given DCS is so that's cool if it does not decode DCS,
However can I listen to a CH(s) and filter out the chatter that's not using a given DCS ???

Or rather can you program in a DTCS along with the freq. (I don't see why you couldn't).. That would be VERY odd however the searched in the PDFowners manule and nothing comes up for DCS, DTCS, or DLP ??

 

[oregontreehugger]

Yup, it would be really nice to see a new version of the R-6 or R-20 with P25. Or a new handheld receiver altogether. Not holding my breath, however.

 

[Boatanchor]

No...

 

[AA6IO]

Yes? Yes, I agree with Boatanchor.
No? No, don't hold your breath. You will be holding it a longggg time, probably forever.
As Skidplate says in post #6, you need more than one handheld these days to get job done.
No radio can do it all. Or if they do, they have a lot of compromises. I have the R20. Good, but there are much better portable SW radios and much better scanners. If you really need above 1200 Mhz, get a $20 dongle and SDRSharp.

 

[tumegpc]

Uniden was on the right track with the BR330T. A Multi-Trunking scanner that had AM & FM broadcast & limited shortwave reception. Spent many hours outdoors listening to football games, Nascar racing and local talk radio when I wasn't scanning.

It was the Swiss Army knife of scanners back in the day.

 

[Midnight_Flyer]

I would totally go for a digital ICOM R-20. Law enforcement around where I live are slowly but surely starting to change to p25 digital systems. As much as I wish everything would stay analog truth is I'd say in no more than 30 years mostly everything will be digital signals. That is a good point that a digital scanner is somewhat useless without trunk tracking capabilities. I'm not sure ICOM would be willing to make a scanner like that anytime soon. They've found a niche market and want to stick with it. There going to have to come to the realization soon though.

 

[Boatanchor]

Icom haven't released a new receiver in donkeys years and even the ones they did release 10 years ago, like the R20, R1500/2500 etc etc, never really sold that well IMO.

Companies like Icom eventually have to face reality that there is little chance of recouping the R&D, tooling and manufacturing costs when selling low volume products like mid-high end receivers.

I'm actually kind of stunned that AOR are releasing the AR DV1 when there clearly isn't a huge market for such a device and SDR is fast taking the monitoring world by storm.

IMHO SDR is the primary reason for companies like Yeasu, Icom, GRE and soon to be others, departing stage left.